438 THE BOOK OF THE LANDED ESTATE. 



about a foot in length. The cones of this tree are said to be something 

 grand, being one foot in length and eighteen inches in circumference. It 

 is a hardy tree, and grows best on good rich soils. It was introduced in 

 1832 by Douglas, and one of the first planted from seed sent by Douglas 

 is still growing in the arboretum at Chiswick, belonging to the Horti- 

 cultural Society. The timber is of a white colour and tough, and is 

 not very hardy in our climate. 



Finns strobus (Weymouth Pine, Linnteus). This is a native of North 

 America, and was introduced some time about the year 1700. It was 

 planted extensively at Longleat, in Wiltshire, by the then Lord Wey- 

 mouth, hence its name. The leaves are about four inches long, and of 

 a pale-greenish colour. It thrives best in good rich soil. Some fine 

 specimens are to be seen in the woods at Arniston, the seat of Robert 

 Dundas, Esq., in the county of Edinburgh. It is said to grow to a 

 height of two hundred feet. One specimen at Arniston is nearly eighty 

 feet high. There are some fine specimens on the estate of Lofthouse, 

 the property of the Earl of Zetland, growing in a sheltered situation in 

 a loam soil, and about one mile inland from the coast. The timber of 

 this tree is not of good quality, being soft and short in the grain, and 

 therefore should not be planted extensively ; but it is an ornamental tree. 

 Pimis sylvestris (Scots Pine). This tree is so well known that it re- 

 quires little or no description at my hands. It is the only one of the pine 

 tribe which is a native of this country, and it is not inferior in any way 

 in the quality of its timber to any of the others. It is a very Iwdy tree, 

 and is found growing on the highest mountains in Scotland, and up to a 

 great elevation, being found upwards of two thousand feet above sea- 

 level. The oldest Scots pine forests of natural growth are those of Bal- 

 lochbuie, on the Invercauld estate, the property of Colonel Farquharson; 

 those of Abernethy and Dutliill, in Strathspey, the property of the Earl 

 of Seafield ; and those of Rothiemurchus and Glenmore, in the upper 

 district of Strathspey. 



The forest of Ballochbuie is situated at an average elevation of about 

 twelve hundred feet above sea-level, with a northern exposure, and 

 in the midst of high mountains. On the lower portions the soil is 

 a kind of gravelly clay, with a subsoil of the same ; at a higher eleva- 

 tion the soil is a light loam resting on a gravelly subsoil ; and on the 

 highest portions the trees grow in crevices of rocks. The age of the 

 trees in the forest range from about one hundred to three hundred 

 years and upwards ; some which have been cut down show an age of 

 about three hundred and twenty years. The average height may be put 

 down at eighty feet, and many of them contain as much as one hundred 

 and sixty cubic feet of timber. 



